Udvar-Hazy Center's Thunderhawk Gunship Display Cancelled

Yesterday, I went to the National Air & Space Museum's annex down in Fairfax, the Udvar-Hazy Center (pronounced "hah-zee," not "hay-zee," apparently). They essentially took a big, empty hangar, stuck walkways around the sides, and filled it with all the planes they didn't have space for at the Museum proper.

Among the aircraft on display were:
-the Enola Gay, the bomber that dropped the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima,
-an SR-71 Blackbird (man, that plane just looks fast),
-the Space Shuttle Enterprise,
-an Air France Concorde jetliner,
-the last surviving Do 335, perhaps the best, and probably the most ridiculous, fighter plane of WWII.

There's something about airplanes that seems inherently patriotic to me, which is strange, considering how they're made and used pretty much world-wide. If anything, flight should be more an expression of the romantic ideals of freedom and independence, and of human potential (similar, I think, to space exploration). It only seems patriotic in the context of competition between nations, like the Americans versus Germans with propeller planes or Americans versus Russians with jet fighters (again, similar to space exploration).

In any event, I'd recommend the Udvar-Hazy Center to anyone who has some interest in aircraft, or just history in general. It's a fairly small museum; you can see everything there in about an hour and a half, even at a leisurely pace. It's free to get in, though parking is $15 - except! For some reason, when we went, parking was free. It could be because it was a weekend, or possibly because we went late in the day (arriving at 5 and leaving when the center closed at 6:30), of for some other, unexplained reason (a strike of the Smithsonian Parking Lot Toll-Collector's Union, perhaps?).

For whatever reason, it was free, and the Udvar-Hazy Center is therefore well worth the price of admission. So while you're still sitting around bored this summer, grab some engineering/historically-minded friends and drive down to Fairfax.

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Meanwhile, Space Marines. Warhammer 40,000's poster-boys, they're genetically-enhanced supermen who run around fighting to protect the rest of the Imperium from {whatever}. They're one of the most versatile armies, with a lot of generalization and a good bit of durability for their infantry, making them a very forgiving army to play.

This in turn means the Space Marines (as I may've mentioned before) are an excellent list for beginners, since you can afford to make a few mistakes and still win. The boxed 'Starter' sets invariably come with Space Marines and whichever enemy makes sense at the time (Orks in Fifth Edition's "Assault on Black Reach", Tyranids in Fourth's "Battle for Macragge", and Dark Eldar, weirdly enough, in the Third Edition boxed set). More than half of beginners start out playing Space Marines, because they're the "good guys" in these conflicts, and the reams of ridiculously over-the-top fluff that come with the boxed sets make this very clear.

The Ultramarines are, by far, the most common Chapter of Space Marines among these players. What are Ultramarines? They're the most plain, boring, by-the-book (in fact, wrote the book) Space Marines, and their color is blue. Ultramarine, geddit? Their symbol is an upside-down greek omega (such that it looks like a fancy U). Oh yeah, real creative. Because they're basically just blue Space Marines, they are sometimes called "SMurfs," and by extension all Space Marines that use the basic SM Codex. Another common term is "Vanilla Marines."

Regardless, the Marines have one of the newest Codices, and are quite powerful on the tabletop when played well. As noted before, they have excellent, tough basic infantry, who have access to a solid selection of heavy and special weapons, coupled with fairly cheap tanks, and both dirt-cheap transports and expensive-but-ludicrously-tough transports.

The new Codex has a wide selection of fairly balanced units, which results in a wide selection of viable tactics. I've tried to hit most of them already, with the Chapter lists. To review:

Black Templar - Assault-oriented, mounted in heavy transports
Blood Angels - Assault-oriented, unmounted but with jump-packs
Dark Angels - Tough, versatile heavy infantry with bikers as support
Space Wolves - Close-ranged firepower, all mounted in drop-pods

There are a few units that are unique to Vanilla Marines, and a few others that aren't, but that I haven't gotten to use in a list yet. I've tried to include some of both in this list, while presenting a different Space Marines tactic - the Razorback Rush. To the List!
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Space Marines - Hybrid Razorback Rush

HQ
Librarian (100) [note#2]
-Avenger (0)
-Null Zone (0)

Troops
Tactical Squad (170) [note#1]
-w/ Meltagun (5)
-w/ Missile Launcher (0)
-Sergeant w/ Powerfist (25)
-mounted in Razorback (40) [note#0]

Tactical Squad (170)
-w/ Meltagun (5)
-w/ Missile Launcher (0)
-Sergeant w/ Powerfist (25)
-mounted in Razorback (40)

Scout Squad (75) [note#3]
-all w/ sniper rifles (0)
-all w/ Camo Cloaks (15)

Fast Attack [note#4]
Attack Bike (40)
-w/ Multimelta (10)

Attack Bike (40)
-w/ Multimelta (10)

Heavy Support [note#5]
Vindicator (115)

Vindicator (115)
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Note#0:
Razorbacks as essentially Rhinos (remember back at the Black Templar list?), with equally light armor. However, they sacrifice some transport capacity (dropping from 10 to 6 models) in exchange for a turreted heavy weapon. In the case of these, it's twin-linked heavy bolters; they're great at mowing down infantry, and unlike the other turret options, which cost almost as much as the Razorback itself, they're free. The role of the Razorback is to put out a steady steam of harassing firepower while shuttling my scoring, objective-claiming Troops around in relative safety, and for their points (only 40!), there's nothing better.

Note#1:
I just realized I've never included a proper Tac-Squad before now, despite that being the standard, basic infantry unit of the Space Marines. This one is designed to be transported in a Razorback (hence the 'Razorback Rush'). But, you may've noticed that I bought a squad of 10 Marines, despite there being only space for 6 aboard the Razorback. What?

The key is the "Combat Squads" special rule. This allows you to split a Tactical Squad of 10 marines down into two separate units of 5 each. In this way, one combat squad (consisting of the Sergeant w/ Powerfist, the marine with the meltagun, and three normal marines) to load up into the Razorback, while the other (with the missile launcher and four normal marines) remains stationary at the deployment zone.

This lets you take full advantage of the mix of special and heavy weapons in your tac-squad. Remember, a heavy weapon (like the missile launcher) cannot be fired if you moved that turn, while an assault weapon (like the meltagun) can. Meltaguns also have very short range, while missile launchers have fairly long range. That means that the guy with the missile launcher is best used to sit stationary and engage long-range threats, while the guy with the meltagun wants to drive up in his Razorback, hop out, and shoot them from close range. By splitting the squad, you can do both.

Thus, from the two Razorback (half-)mounted Tactical Squads, you get four combat squads. Two of them form a miniature firing line on your side of the table, while the other two drive around in their Razorbacks, going out to claim objectives or hit critical targets.

Note#2:
This is also the first list I've used a Librarian. No, not the maternal lady in glasses who reshelves your books; a Space Marine Librarian is a psyker. and as such has access to a few different psychic powers (which essentially take the place of magic spells from Warhammer Fantasy). Unlike the Chaplain or Captain HQ choices, the Librarian is a support character, meant to back up your other units. On his own, he's still pretty good in a fight, though without an Invulnerable Save he'll dies quickly against dedicated close-combat troops.

When choosing which powers to bring, it's important to remember what role you want the Librarian to play. In this case, he'll attach to one of the Razorback squads (taking that last free seat), to help get close enough to disrupt the enemy with his powers while keeping out of trouble. For this role, I gave him Avenger and Null Zone. Null Zone allows you to negate any invulnerable saves of an enemy within 24", making your shooting more likely to be fatal. Avenger is basically a flamethrower that ignores all but the best armor saves, making it awesome in the sort of close-range shooting that the Razorback squads should be going for.

The Librarian also comes equipped with a Psychic Hood. With this handy bit of gear, any psychic power used within 24" of you has about a 50% chance of being cancelled out. While often useless, against enemies that rely on their own psykers (Eldar, usually, though Imperial Guard, Chaos, and other armies have them as well) the Hood is maybe the most useful part about the Librarian.

Note#3:
Yet another handy unit in this list is the Scout Squad. Essentially Space-Marines-in-Training, Scouts aren't as hardy as the Marines. They make a great backfield support unit, however, and are still scoring, meaning they're ideal for holding an easy "home" objective close to your deployment zone. With Camo Cloaks, putting them in cover makes them suddenly much harder to kill. With five sniper rifles, they don't seem like a huge threat, meaning most opponents will just ignore them. However, due to the Sniper rules, one lucky round of shooting can be a game-changer - pinning a critical unit, rending through heavy infantry, picking off that Monstrous Creature's last wound, etc. All in all, Scouts are a great support option.

Note#4:
Meet the bike squad's older brother. Attack Bikes are basically a motorcycle-with-sidecar, where the sidecar is toting an anti-tank gun. Attack Bikes are very fast, and the multi-meltas they're carrying are very deadly against enemy armor. With Toughness 5 and 2 Wounds each, plus an invulnerable save when turbo-boosting, they're even fairly resilient. Between the two of them, your Attack Bikes should be able to suppress most any enemy vehicles.

As a side-note, I considered instead spending these 100 points on a Landspeeder, which is another neat Space Marine unit I haven't used yet. Essentially a light, quick skimmer, an excellent Landspeeder load-out these days in to have a multi-melta and assault cannon, which gives it great versatility and firepower (and comes in costing exactly as much as the two bikes). However, I picked the bikes, because 1) they're probably more durable; with AV10 all-around, even a single lucky bolter shot can wipe out your entire Fast Attack section, and 2) I don't really need the sort of anti-infantry the assault cannon offers me; the chance of engaging two enemy vehicles is, I suspect, much more vital to this list. Still, if you're a big fan of Landspeeders (and they are pretty sweet), that's a possible alternative here.

Note#5:
One gun is enough, if it's big. The Demolisher Cannon mounted by the Vindicator is Str10 (the strongest allowed), AP 2 (low enough to pierce any armor save), and Large Blast Ordinance. This means that it can kill both huge swathes of infantry, regardless of type and vehicles of any Armor Value (remember, Ordinance weapons roll 2 dice and keep the highest for armor penetration). It can insta-kill anyone with a Toughness less than 6, probably without any kind of save, including Feel No Pain. In fact, it's easier to list what isn't scared sh!tless by this gun: Monstrous Creatures (which it'll still kill, just not in one shot), and maybe very small, cheap vehicles (where it'd be hard to kill enough to justify it's points cost).

So, what's the weakness? For one, short range: 24" is fairly short for a tank-mounted gun, and probably means getting within melta-range of enemy infantry unless you have support. It's front armor is decent, but the sides and rear are still vulnerable to most heavy weapons. Likewise, with only one really dangerous gun, a single 'Weapon Destroyed' damage result effectively neuters this tank, and since the gun is hull-mounted, an 'Immobilized' result limits your choice in targets so much it's almost as bad.

And of course, there's the fact that everyone knows this tank can wreck them, so on first turn it's going to have every anti-tank gun on the field pointed at it. That's why you take two; to ensure one of them survives long enough to do some shooting, at which point it'll earn it's points back in no time. Remember: a lone tank is a target. Two of them, supporting each other, are your most dangerous weapon.
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Geez, did that seem a lot longer than usual to anyone else? If there's one thing that surprised me about the new Space Marine list, it's just how cheap everything is. Razorbacks for 40 points? Multi-melta attack bikes for 50? A sniper unit for 90? Vindicators for 115? On the same note, this list have five different scoring units (when broken into combat squads), and still manages to be fairly well-balanced between Troops, Fast Attack, and Heavy Support. Of all the lists I've made so far, this might be the most formidable. (Probably because I didn't get suckered into taking any gigantic points-sink combos this time...)

Next Time (40k): The Necrons, or "What happens if John Connor fails"